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Brawlout Coming To Switch & New Character Announcement

brawloutswitch.png

Today, Brawlout, made by developer Angry Mob Games has announced that it will be launching on the Nintendo Switch , and that The Drifter from Hyper Light Drifter will be playable. Brawlout has already launched on Steam as an early access game and will be releasing on all three consoles late 2017.

Watch the video of the announcement below,


and reach the devlopers at @brawloutgame.
 
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Lucas "Thirdkoopa" Guimaraes

Comments

I think there's a lot to talk about here.

First, I like how it's not all dark and le edgy. The stages are well lit and the characters are fairly toony, though still a bit too serious looking in my opinion, almost as if Sm4sh tried to be Brawl--which is to say I'm not a big fan of the character design right now. I haven't been a fan of any of the new platform fighters' character designs, in fact, because they aren't trying or fail to succeed at imitating Smash's casts' diversity.

All of the characters in Smash have completely different designs by nature having come from different games and from the heads of different creators, and different personalities and backstories that are well fleshed out and represented in some way or another in their character designs. The Star Fox cast are all animals in flight suits with the special abilities of spaceships and martial arts skills. The Pokemon cast are all monstrous animals with freaky body textures and shapes and a multitude of elemental powers. Snake is a middle-aged human clone spy with military grade weaponry at his disposal and an quaint sense of humor on his tongue. The Fire Emblem's cast are Japan's romanticized vision of Medieval sword fighters and mages.

I could go on, and in more detail. My point is that the Smash characters all have a ton of personality, but they are all very different from one another and unique, and I'll even say well designed, aesthetic, and interesting.

The new platform fighters on the other hand seem to all have mostly humanoid casts, or a similarly homogenous group of characters, they all look like the same style--not even just the consequence of the game being cohesive, but like the same person designed all of the characters themself with the same theme or vision in mind--and neither the characters' look, nor movements, or anything else I see at a surface level tell me a tale about who these characters are or what they do--including this game's Knight-King with an energy sword and Revive-chestpiece nor the wrestling mutant frog.

They all demonstrate a dearth of creativity. If a new platform fighter right now came out that was composed of selected members from the rosters of these aforementioned platform fighters, that cast would be multiple degrees more interesting and diverse than any of these individual rosters. And I think striving for that diversity is what the developers should have had in mind from the beginning. Smash isn't just about the mechanics of the game. It's also in large part about the people, the places, and the things you saw in stories you loved, or would have liked to get to know better.

Anyway, last thing I'll say initially is that it regrettably seems to outclass Icons in virtually every aspect. From what they've shown so far, I don't see any reason people would choose to play Icons over Brawlout unless they (a) had no money (b) did not own a Switch but rather a PC. Icons' team really needs to step up their character design, graphics, and sound effects to even make it a contest.
 
I think there's a lot to talk about here.

First, I like how it's not all dark and le edgy. The stages are well lit and the characters are fairly toony, though still a bit too serious looking in my opinion, almost as if Sm4sh tried to be Brawl--which is to say I'm not a big fan of the character design right now. I haven't been a fan of any of the new platform fighters' character designs, in fact, because they aren't trying or fail to succeed at imitating Smash's casts' diversity.

All of the characters in Smash have completely different designs by nature having come from different games and from the heads of different creators, and different personalities and backstories that are well fleshed out and represented in some way or another in their character designs. The Star Fox cast are all animals in flight suits with the special abilities of spaceships and martial arts skills. The Pokemon cast are all monstrous animals with freaky body textures and shapes and a multitude of elemental powers. Snake is a middle-aged human clone spy with military grade weaponry at his disposal and an quaint sense of humor on his tongue. The Fire Emblem's cast are Japan's romanticized vision of Medieval sword fighters and mages.

I could go on, and in more detail. My point is that the Smash characters all have a ton of personality, but they are all very different from one another and unique, and I'll even say well designed, aesthetic, and interesting.

The new platform fighters on the other hand seem to all have mostly humanoid casts, or a similarly homogenous group of characters, they all look like the same style--not even just the consequence of the game being cohesive, but like the same person designed all of the characters themself with the same theme or vision in mind--and neither the characters' look, nor movements, or anything else I see at a surface level tell me a tale about who these characters are or what they do--including this game's Knight-King with an energy sword and Revive-chestpiece nor the wrestling mutant frog.

They all demonstrate a dearth of creativity. If a new platform fighter right now came out that was composed of selected members from the rosters of these aforementioned platform fighters, that cast would be multiple degrees more interesting and diverse than any of these individual rosters. And I think striving for that diversity is what the developers should have had in mind from the beginning. Smash isn't just about the mechanics of the game. It's also in large part about the people, the places, and the things you saw in stories you loved, or would have liked to get to know better.

Anyway, last thing I'll say initially is that it regrettably seems to outclass Icons in virtually every aspect. From what they've shown so far, I don't see any reason people would choose to play Icons over Brawlout unless they (a) had no money (b) did not own a Switch but rather a PC. Icons' team really needs to step up their character design, graphics, and sound effects to even make it a contest.
I played Brawlout back in the closed beta and tbh it's... not very good. Maybe it's gotten better since then, but idk.

I think Rivals of Aether is the one platform fighter that really "gets it" at the moment, both in terms of character design and gameplay. I think the system design stuff is a bit too barebones, but I think that (and its indie status tbh) is the only thing holding it back from being the next truly great platform fighter

In terms of the diversity of the cast, Rivals takes a lot of cues from games like Street Fighter or League of Legends - not only does each character's lore firmly tie them to a faction and a specific part of the game's world, but the worldbuilding is heavily focused around the characters and their role in it.

Dan Fornace and his team also take a holistic approach to character design that you don't really see in Brawlout or Icons. Each aspect of a character - from their appearance to their moves to their lore - informs one another. Just look at Kragg and Wrastor. Kragg is a big, heavy beetle whose whole life is dedicated to the maintenance of a giant rock wall, and his playstyle is slow and defensive, with some strong zoning tools and moves that hit like a truck. Wrastor is an aviator-looking bird dude with a cocky, risk-seeking attitude and a playstyle based around verticality and mobility, with strong approach and combo tools and high risk-high-reward kill moves.

Looking at Smash as the Street Fighter of platform fighters, I think Icons is shaping up to be the King of Fighters of the genre - it's (from what I've been hearing) pretty good mechanically, but it's so too similar to really have its own identity. Rivals of Aether is almost the Guilty Gear of the genre what with the way it builds its characters around a single unique mechanic, but it doesn't quite hit the mark in terms of system design. Brawlout looks like one of those ****ty surface-level Street Fighter clones from the 90s.

Also gonna say that the way that The Drifter was translated into Brawlout just loses everything that was great about Hyper Light Drifter and reduced them to just a spacie with a sword and Cloud's up-B, and tbh I'm really disappointed about this. Like, that isn't the Drifter. That's a bad action figure of The Drifter.
 
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D
The fact I have to worry about Shovel Knight getting into this due to him being the Morgan Freeman of indies instead of the real Smash is bothersome....

I haven't been a fan of any of the new platform fighters' character designs, in fact, because they aren't trying or fail to succeed at imitating Smash's casts' diversity.

All of the characters in Smash have completely different designs by nature having come from different games and from the heads of different creators, and different personalities and backstories that are well fleshed out and represented in some way or another in their character designs. The Star Fox cast are all animals in flight suits with the special abilities of spaceships and martial arts skills. The Pokemon cast are all monstrous animals with freaky body textures and shapes and a multitude of elemental powers. Snake is a middle-aged human clone spy with military grade weaponry at his disposal and an quaint sense of humor on his tongue. The Fire Emblem's cast are Japan's romanticized vision of Medieval sword fighters and mages.

I could go on, and in more detail. My point is that the Smash characters all have a ton of personality, but they are all very different from one another and unique, and I'll even say well designed, aesthetic, and interesting.

The new platform fighters on the other hand seem to all have mostly humanoid casts, or a similarly homogenous group of characters, they all look like the same style--not even just the consequence of the game being cohesive, but like the same person designed all of the characters themself with the same theme or vision in mind--and neither the characters' look, nor movements, or anything else I see at a surface level tell me a tale about who these characters are or what they do--including this game's Knight-King with an energy sword and Revive-chestpiece nor the wrestling mutant frog.

They all demonstrate a dearth of creativity. If a new platform fighter right now came out that was composed of selected members from the rosters of these aforementioned platform fighters, that cast would be multiple degrees more interesting and diverse than any of these individual rosters. And I think striving for that diversity is what the developers should have had in mind from the beginning. Smash isn't just about the mechanics of the game. It's also in large part about the people, the places, and the things you saw in stories you loved, or would have liked to get to know better.
You'll have to remember that it's because Smash uses different established series of various styles for its roster while these newer platform fighters don't have that luxury since they're all centered around one "universe".

Not that your point isn't valid about the lack of diversity in design styles, just that it makes sense why it would be that way.
For example, had Smash not have the "Nintendo All-Star" theme and gone with the original IP route like the initial draft, I doubt the cast would have been so "diverse".
 
I really hope this gets half the roster of Runbow.

Give me Juan and Tostada from Guacamelee, Rusty from Steamworld Dig, commander video, Shovel Knight and Shantae and this becomes Day one easy.
 
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I'm keep my expectations on the game's possible roster size (both original characters and guests) low for the time being. The official website only shows 2 blank spaces left and no idea if that'll ever change. The (finished) game isn't out yet for a while so that could change in time.
 
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I really hope this gets half the roster of Runbow.

Give me Juan and Tostada from Guacamelee, Rusty from Steamworld Dig, commander video, Shovel Knight and Shantae and this becomes Day one easy.
This is meant to be an original game, not one of those 50 fan projects touting names like "Indie Fighters"
 
Drifter in Brawlout = Cloud + Bayonetta + Fox
I hope everyone else in this game is super busted too.
I want to give this and Icons a chance but they are putting all of their cards on the table too early.
 
I think there's a lot to talk about here.

First, I like how it's not all dark and le edgy. The stages are well lit and the characters are fairly toony, though still a bit too serious looking in my opinion, almost as if Sm4sh tried to be Brawl--which is to say I'm not a big fan of the character design right now. I haven't been a fan of any of the new platform fighters' character designs, in fact, because they aren't trying or fail to succeed at imitating Smash's casts' diversity.

All of the characters in Smash have completely different designs by nature having come from different games and from the heads of different creators, and different personalities and backstories that are well fleshed out and represented in some way or another in their character designs. The Star Fox cast are all animals in flight suits with the special abilities of spaceships and martial arts skills. The Pokemon cast are all monstrous animals with freaky body textures and shapes and a multitude of elemental powers. Snake is a middle-aged human clone spy with military grade weaponry at his disposal and an quaint sense of humor on his tongue. The Fire Emblem's cast are Japan's romanticized vision of Medieval sword fighters and mages.

I could go on, and in more detail. My point is that the Smash characters all have a ton of personality, but they are all very different from one another and unique, and I'll even say well designed, aesthetic, and interesting.

The new platform fighters on the other hand seem to all have mostly humanoid casts, or a similarly homogenous group of characters, they all look like the same style--not even just the consequence of the game being cohesive, but like the same person designed all of the characters themself with the same theme or vision in mind--and neither the characters' look, nor movements, or anything else I see at a surface level tell me a tale about who these characters are or what they do--including this game's Knight-King with an energy sword and Revive-chestpiece nor the wrestling mutant frog.

They all demonstrate a dearth of creativity. If a new platform fighter right now came out that was composed of selected members from the rosters of these aforementioned platform fighters, that cast would be multiple degrees more interesting and diverse than any of these individual rosters. And I think striving for that diversity is what the developers should have had in mind from the beginning. Smash isn't just about the mechanics of the game. It's also in large part about the people, the places, and the things you saw in stories you loved, or would have liked to get to know better.

Anyway, last thing I'll say initially is that it regrettably seems to outclass Icons in virtually every aspect. From what they've shown so far, I don't see any reason people would choose to play Icons over Brawlout unless they (a) had no money (b) did not own a Switch but rather a PC. Icons' team really needs to step up their character design, graphics, and sound effects to even make it a contest.
Icons is going to knock Brawlout out of the park in terms of gameplay. Brawlout's dev team is focused on all of the wrong things. Brawlout's devs add content while there are still horribly unpolished and unbalanced mechanics. Wavedash, the Icons devs, have emphasized having good, fast paced gameplay from the start. Brawlout just plays like ass so far, and I don't forsee it getting better with such a mediocre dev team and a community that demands things that are bad for the game.
 
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I really wish someone would just throw a **** ton of Indy characters into one game and make that a Smash-esque Brawler.

It's super cool to see Ori and Drifter getting some love but imagining them alongside Shovel Knight, Yooka-Laylee, Meatboy, etc. Would actually get me interested in one of these platform fighters. As of right now, I just look at them and go 'neat'.
 
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I'm just looking at all this gameplay and being reminded of greninja. A non-edgy but cool ninja. Now I really need to get the switch. Also, is there info or hints on 3rd party/ I can definetly happen with this game considering what Smash and Rivals of Aether did.
 
A lot of well educated people here. I agree with a lot of the points regarding why this game will fail. To add to them, I will quote one of my earlier posts

This is going to fail. All of these "Platform Fighters" (read: Smash Bros. ripoffs) think that they can instantly achieve the success that Smash did by throwing in some combos and wavedashing, but they are missing the point;

Smash isn't popular because of wavedashing, it isn't even popular because of gameplay or it's competitive scene. It's popular due to it's characters, popular and meaningful characters that have history and have existed for generations. Characters that we have grown to love.

Wavedash Games and Rivals of Aether simply insert a bunch of random indie-looking characters into their game and add wavedashing and they expect it to sell. Who are these characters? What are their personalities and experiences? Why should we care? Including "Kidd" and other similar ripoffs isn't bad in itself, but the creators must establish these characters first. Give Kidd a game and an elaborate series, and continue this with the other characters, then merge them together for a cross-franchise game. Give us a reason to care by establishing characters we can care for.

The problem here is that these companies are run by a bunch of amateurs who are all trying to achieve instant success. Nobody knows their place; Everybody thinks that they're Reggie Fils-Aime or Tatsumi Kimishima, and that the world bends to their will; The first step to becoming somebody is to acknowledge that you're nobody.

I know these things because I am an entrepreneur (don't ask me for my name), and I want to help aspiring entrepreneurs to be successful, and not to succumb to the fate of the cursed "small businesses" or "'independent' companies". Wavedash Games messed up, but you don't have to make the same mistake.

Also, as a protip: Please don't put "Games" in your name. Just don't.
Here's another quote on why developers shouldn't add "Games" to their company name (this is very important)

Inserting specifiers into a company name detracts from the title (eg: Nintendo Games) and creates a hobbyist/indie vibe. Since this is so common among new and "independent" businesses, inserting them makes your company seem as part of the "void", or vacuum. In addition to creating an Independent vibe, "Games" is also a specifier that is strongly associated with Small Businesses--Neither of which have good connotations. Small Businesses and Independents are typically viewed as individuals with whom others have some camaraderie with, while Larger Corporations (such as Nintendo, Microsoft, etc.) are viewed simply as "corporations". People view Larger Corporations in a generally higher esteem, whereas they view Independents as equals. Many people feel some form of elevation upon purchasing a product from a Large Company--of any kind (bragging over shoes and games is common among adolescents), while others may have feelings of condescension or entitlement from purchasing a product from someone they view as equal. As people begin to feel they have a "closer" relationship with you, the individual, they begin to request more for less, under the assumptions that they have a greater degree of control.

I myself have noticed this; back when I made the novice mistake of marketing directly, I got little business and no progress, however, after learning the game and talking through my company, I noticed immediate and consistent improvements in both sales and customer satisfaction.

That's the main point; Mystification. Adding "Games" not only removes this important quality, but it also consigns the company into the void, filled with countless others who have done the same.

It also shows indecisiveness, or, as I call it "Indiecisiveness", subconsciously, it creates the vibe that the creator themselves are unaware of their goals, and include "Games" as a form of reaffirmation. In a world with increasingly strict consumers, being anything short of perfect is unacceptable. This is also bad for merchandising; what if a company does see some potential in their products and decide the make toys of them? completely disregarding their designs, seeing "Wavedash", let alone "Wavedash Games" imprinted on the box would probably incur more giggles than actual sales.

Simply not including "Games" isn't the sole solution, however. The name itself must also be satisfactory, whether it be meaningful (Nintendo, Microsoft), or memorable (Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc).

To reiterate and compliment my past points, if you want to rival Nintendo and similar companies in success, your primary goal should be to distance yourself as an individual from your company as far as possible. I'd advise hiding your name for as long as needed, avoiding interviews at all costs until you're successful, and prohibiting (or strongly advising against) staff or relatives from mentioning your name or anything about you until you've reached a level of success to where it will no longer affect you. I'd advise asking them to deflect the question rather than responding with refusal, as you want to appear "mysterious", not "hostile".

Initiating with 3D Games is also a good way to establish yourself on the positive, as most indies use 2D for either aesthetic or financial reasons, creating an immediate distinction which can be used to propel you to greater levels of success. If you really want to be extravagant, make a custom engine as well (assuming, of course, these are all of quality), or at least use one of the most sophisticated ones (Smash runs on Havok, I believe).

Ultimately, it depends on the level of success one wants to achieve, some people may prefer to live a standard middle-class life, complete with the camaraderie that comes with Small Businesses. Others, however, may aspire to rival or even eclipse the success of those like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Neither one is wrong, just different.

tl;dr - Adding specifiers (in particular Games) shows uncertainty and creates the appearance of the creator being a Small/Independent business, which aren't taken very seriously in the world. Perhaps Bandai Namco Entertainment is an exception, but that's only because they are an established company of which existed at the dawn of video games. Prior exclusivity and being established gives these companies automatic advantages, however it's not impossible to rival them even today if you have the necessary knowledge and skills.
Provided, some of this info is outdated, as it doesn't include Brawlout and Angry Mob Games (practically built for failure), but it covers the general points. Also, don't use your real name (eg: Dan Fornace) as a gaming company name either. Death trap.
 
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I would have been interested. I was in fact, right up until the Youtube clip got to the characters. Yes it will be easy for them to scrap all of their lame characters and get dev teams from other indie titles to allow them to use their characters. There is so much to draw from I wager many would let them use their characters for very cheap if not free. Because what indie dev team wouldn't want the publicity an officially released Smash type game will get.

But to be very honest I don't care so much right now about the characters, as much as I do about the models. Any new game will have a tough time getting new fans to like their characters and components of their games. And characters are something that can grow on you. But the actual models are terrible. It's that generic smooth bubble body indie bad color shading baloney. They look like every other bad character model on the smaller game dev scene. As if there is one guy at home making 100s of character models and then going door to door looking for people making games in their mothers basement and offering these models to them for free, as long as he gets his name in the credits.

Bad mechanics can get fixed with patches if it gets that far. Throwing away all the models o replace them with a better quality model is not so easy. So they need to fix that ASAP.
 
Honestly devs, stop making Smash clones. Not only are the smash fanboys not going to get your game, but they're going to hound your ass for daring to copy their beloved Nintendo. The core SSB fans will not play anything without Nintendo chars (and Melee players will not play anything that's not Melee), hell, 3rd party characters in Smash used to be a controversial point of contention...

It's a shame because the Smash Bros games are all very sound and fine tuned in the game mechanics department (except Brawl, screw Brawl, casual gamer btw) but all everyone cares about is MUHHHH NINTENDO CHARECTUUUUURRRRRZZZZZ
 
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D
Hey. Smash fanboy here.
I like trying out different "Smash clones", especially for different franchises I enjoy.
Never had a problem with guests in Smash.

Don't speak for all of us.
 
Nintendo doesn't have an monopoly on platform brawlers. Competition is always healthy.

Never hurts to expand your tastes.
 
Hey. Smash fanboy here.
I like trying out different "Smash clones", especially for different franchises I enjoy.
Never had a problem with guests in Smash.

Don't speak for all of us.
If you're open to playing Smash Bros clones, doesn't that make you not a fanboy by definition, but a fan?
I have all smash games, plus all PM versions, smash flash 2 and brawl minus, but I also don't believe that only Nintendo or Sakurai can do the Smash formula right or that the games are perfect so I wouldn't say I am a fanboy.

My point is that any indie or clone Smash game will be an hard sell.
If the Smash clone you're selling isn't backed by big bucks for advertising, the casual Smash fans probably won't know about it.
Most competitive Smash fans will probably pass on playing the indie game competitively, because they are already part of the big SSB competitive scene, and wouldn't care much for building a new scene around a clone (that's if the game is even good at the competitive level).
Most Nintendo enthusiasts, who enjoy Smash more as a celebration of all things Nintendo, rather than a game, won't even touch it.
That leaves a small minority of players with more than a passing interest in Smash Bros and who are informed about similar games, and also willing to try them out.
This is my opinion.
 
D
If you're open to playing Smash Bros clones, doesn't that make you not a fanboy by definition, but a fan?
I have all smash games, plus all PM versions, smash flash 2 and brawl minus, but I also don't believe that only Nintendo or Sakurai can do the Smash formula right or that the games are perfect so I wouldn't say I am a fanboy.

My point is that any indie or clone Smash game will be an hard sell.
If the Smash clone you're selling isn't backed by big bucks for advertising, the casual Smash fans probably won't know about it.
Most competitive Smash fans will probably pass on playing the indie game competitively, because they are already part of the big SSB competitive scene, and wouldn't care much for building a new scene around a clone (that's if the game is even good at the competitive level).
Most Nintendo enthusiasts, who enjoy Smash more as a celebration of all things Nintendo, rather than a game, won't even touch it.
That leaves a small minority of players with more than a passing interest in Smash Bros and who are informed about similar games, and also willing to try them out.
This is my opinion.
If the game is good on a competitive level or even is promising to be one, then chances are competitive Smash fans will at least give it a chance.

Most of the older "Smash clones" weren't focused on being competitively viable, which is why they aren't nearly as polished and don't have much of a competitive scene if they have any at all. They were just meant to be fun Smash-like games for fans of other franchises, such as Digimon, TMNT, Kung Fu Panda, various Cartoon Network shows, etc.
In this day and age with the rise of esports however, these newer "clones" such as Brawlout, Rivals of Aether, and Icons are trying to entice people not by the prospect of the "fun game for X franchise", but rather the competitive gameplay aspect of Smash (especially Melee) using original characters.

And none of these games are being marketed to the Nintendo enthusiasts that won't bother, so it's not like their opinion matters in the first place, you know? :p
 
I keep hearing the term "Smash Clone" and can't help but wonder if ANY of these people have heard of old FPS games like Heretic or its sequel, Hexen... cause when those were out, guess what they were called: "DOOM Clones"...

I think the comments by Starship Grove more or less epitomize the difficulties of games like Brawlout or Rivals of Aether... they don't even consider the term "Platform Fighter", it will be forever called a "Smash Clone"... and I find that disappointing because having played Rivals of Aether a fair bit myself, it does have a few differences in its mechanics to distinguish from the likes of Melee (where it has the most in common with).

unless those particularly oblivious (maybe ignorant) followers are willing to hold something of an open mind and not be so quick to compare things to what they really like, it's still going to remain an uphill battle...
 
I keep hearing the term "Smash Clone" and can't help but wonder if ANY of these people have heard of old FPS games like Heretic or its sequel, Hexen... cause when those were out, guess what they were called: "DOOM Clones"...

I think the comments by Starship Grove more or less epitomize the difficulties of games like Brawlout or Rivals of Aether... they don't even consider the term "Platform Fighter", it will be forever called a "Smash Clone"... and I find that disappointing because having played Rivals of Aether a fair bit myself, it does have a few differences in its mechanics to distinguish from the likes of Melee (where it has the most in common with).

unless those particularly oblivious (maybe ignorant) followers are willing to hold something of an open mind and not be so quick to compare things to what they really like, it's still going to remain an uphill battle...
On the flip side, there are people so frustratingly hellbent on differenciating their platform fighter from Smash (the Brawlout community is especially bad about this), that they outright reject any suggestions that sound like they'd make it more similar to Smash, whether or not Smash handles the mechanic suggested better
 
On the flip side, there are people so frustratingly hellbent on differenciating their platform fighter from Smash (the Brawlout community is especially bad about this), that they outright reject any suggestions that sound like they'd make it more similar to Smash, whether or not Smash handles the mechanic suggested better
fair enough, I guess my intended point was the fact that basing a game's value by comparing it to others is a skewed scale in and of itself... i feel it's just better to look at something for what they strive for and not what it's trying to "do better"...

Rivals of Aether, as I said before, has a lot in common with Melee in terms of gameplay, but what I feel sets it apart is how there's a primary emphasis on mobility and a sort of -nature themed aesthetic, what with each fighter being proficient in a natural element and having a gimmick based on it. Zetterburn sets opponents on fire, Wrastor can use the wind to move faster, and so-on. it also has an extensive tutorial mode that introduces players to everything in the gameplay, even down to things like wavedashing, which I supremely appreciate.

more to the point, I don't know much about Brawlout, and considering Hyper Light Drifter is an indie game, I get the impression this game is putting its own spin on Smash's crossover aspect. if I turn out to be wrong, fine, but trashing or dismissing a game because of something someone else "did better" alone just feels really....... I guess "shallow" comes to mind... I dunno.

"shortsighted"... maybe...?
 
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I really wish someone would just throw a **** ton of Indy characters into one game and make that a Smash-esque Brawler.

It's super cool to see Ori and Drifter getting some love but imagining them alongside Shovel Knight, Yooka-Laylee, Meatboy, etc. Would actually get me interested in one of these platform fighters. As of right now, I just look at them and go 'neat'.
Closest thing we have ever had to that came out a decade ago as Newgrounds Rumble, which had Pico, the Alien Homonid, Fancy Pants Man and several others as playable.

I too would not mind seeing something similar, since the numerous guest characters added to some of the fun in Super Meat Boy.
 
I love Drifter. Brawlout seems cool but literally peaks on Steam w/ about 10 players...

Honestly devs, stop making Smash clones.
Why? Not everyone has Nintendo platforms.

There's a market out there for PC platform fighters for sure. Brawlhalla has 5k-9k regularly on, Rivals of Aether a decent 200-500ish. Brawlout hopefully doesn't die before it even starts gaining real traction.
 
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IIRC Brawlout has wavedashing
Nintendo, is allowing their console to have a game with wavedashing in it.
it's been 15 years since they let something like this Slide
 
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